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The still of 12 Citizens.
Mainland playwright and occasional actor Xu Ang makes a powerful film-making debut with 12 Citizens, a Beijing-set adaptation of Reginald Rose\'s classic 1954 teleplay , 12 Angry Men , about a lone juror who turns his 11 colleagues round to a "not guilty" judgement in a murder case. Best known as a 1957 Hollywood movie directed by Sidney Lumet, the classic post-war examination of reason vs prejudice, legality vs rush-to-judgement, proves eminently adaptable to China\'s fast-evolving society, especially with its intelligent script that hews closely to Rose\'s plot but transfers it seamlessly to a contemporary Asian setting. China has traditionally been short on big-screen legal/courtroom dramas compared with, say, South Korea, but 12 Citizens stands proud next to another recent example, Silent Witness.
Where the Hollywood film had an all-star cast, Xu\'s uses a team of middle-aged character actors better known for their stage work (at Beijing People\'s Art Theatre and National Theatre Company of China) rather than their box-office power, and he\'s also resisted the temptation to make the movie more commercial by introducing younger actors or female roles. The result is a quality drama, pitched somewhere between the mainstream and arthouse, in which dialogue and performances rule, supported by invisibly smooth editing and subtly shaded cinematography that blend the material into a gripping dramatic experience, even for audiences familiar with the original.
Just as Rose\'s original took a stereotypical cross-section of \'50s US society, Xu and his fellow writers (legal expert Li Yujiao and scripter Han Jinglong , Bunshinsaba II) do the same with China for a commentary on attitudes and prejudices in the present-day Mainland (or more specifically, Beijing). Subjects include the widening division between rich and poor, metropolitan snobbery towards the rural nouveau riche, the arrogance of the so-called fu erdai_ (spoiled kids of wealthy entrepreneurs) and, still the hottest subject in China, the rule of law on an everyday basis rather than just having a fair legal system. No more or no less didactic than Rose\'s original, the film manages to create real characters who engage an audience\'s emotions rather than being just a collection of representative cut-outs - and for that Xu can take as much credit as his excellent, seasoned cast.
As the sole juror ("No. 8") who sticks to his beliefs despite much opposition, He Bing subtly shades a potentially goodie-goodie role, as a man who acknowledges the impossibility of ever knowing the truth but insists the evidence is hardly conclusive when looked at with an objective eye. In suppressed emotion, he\'s particularly well matched by Zhao Chunyang as a wealthy real estate businessman who\'s "sponsoring" a hot female student at the university, and by Gao Dongping as a reformed gangster who holds back his feelings until a crucial stage. Balancing those quieter performances, Han Tongsheng dominates much of the film as "No. 3", who holds out the longest for a "guilty" vote; utterly believable as a volatile Beijing taxi-driver, Han also turns a potential stereotype into a genuinely moving character, especially in his final, impassioned speech.